Taken 2 was stale. When I first heard the premise of the movie (the fact that the daughter, Kim, is now the one that has to save her parents), I feared it would be dull. Unless Kim had acquired some secret martial arts skills since the last movie, I didn't see how this could beat Liam Neeson being a badass on screen, which we all know was what made Taken entertaining.

In fact, the only reason I give this a 2.0 instead of a 1.5 is because I fell asleep in the middle of this movie. Maybe something amazing happened in the 10-15 minutes I was asleep, therefore bumping up the movie grade...I guess I'm giving Neeson the benefit of the doubt. More likely though, is that it deserves a 1.5 because again...I fell asleep. I can't remember the last time I've fallen asleep in the movie theater.

The characterization was poor, the story was stupid, and I have to say, that this movie had the dullest car chase scene I have ever seen. Never mind the fact that Kim, who drives the car in this scene, doesn't even have her license in the US and who has never driven stick before can now suddenly drive a manual car well enough to escape from the bad guys. Luc Besson, who I had hoped to give more credit, fills this too-long, too-slow scene with hackneyed cuts between screeching tires and closeup shots of gear shifts. Furthermore, the whole scene is filled with Neeson yelling at his daughter "drive! Keep driving! Stop! GO WHAT ARE YOU DOING JUST GO!"

I fell asleep right after this point.

One final note -- the humor in this was just...No. It was awkward and awful.